On June 4, OPM released a statement on “a cybersecurity incident” that potentially affected personnel data of current and former federal employees, including personally identifiable information (PII) (see OPM Hack Compromises Federal Employee Records, Not Just PII But Security Clearance Info). The initial estimate was that the OPM hack affected potentially 4 million employees. On June 12, fedscoop reported that the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) believed that the breach may have compromised personal data of as high as 14 million employees.

We understand that the State Department issued a notice to employees concerning the OPM breach on June 4. A second notice dated June 12 (am told this was actually a June 11 notice) was shared with BuzzFeed (see below). Several unnamed State Department employees were quoted in that BuzzFeed article, a tell-tale sign of growing frustration that we can also see from our inbox.

Excerpt from email sent by Under Secretary of Management Pat Kennedy on June 12 (via BuzzFeed)

This is an update to my previous e-mail of June 4th [repeated at the very end of this message.]

As was communicated last week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently became aware of a cybersecurity incident affecting its systems and data that may have exposed the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of some current and former Federal employees. This email provides additional information regarding next steps for those affected State Department employees. But, every employee should read this email.

In the coming weeks, OPM will be sending notifications to individuals whose PII was potentially compromised in this incident. The email will come from [DELETED] and it will contain information regarding credit monitoring and identity theft protection services being provided to those Federal employees impacted by the data breach. In the event OPM does not have an email address for the individual on file, a standard letter will be sent via the U.S. Postal Service.

As a note of caution, confirm that the email you receive is, in fact, the official notification. It’s possible that malicious groups may leverage this event to launch phishing attacks. To protect yourself, we encourage you to check the following:

1. Make sure the sender email address is [DELETED]

2. The email is sent exclusively to your work email address. No other individuals should be in the To, CC, or BCC fields.

3. The email subject should be exactly [DELETED]

4. Do not click on the included link. Instead, record the provided PIN code, open a web browser then manually type the URL {DELETED]. You can then use the provided instructions to enroll [DELETED].

5. The email should not contain any attachments. If it does, do not open them.

6. The email should not contain any requests for additional personal information.

7. The official email should look like the sample screenshot below.

Additional information has also been made available beginning on June 8, 2015 on the company’s website [DELETED].

Regardless of whether or not you receive this notification, employees should take extra care to ensure that they are following recommended cyber and personal security procedures. If you suspect that you have received a phishing attack, contact your agency’s security office.

In general, government employees are often frequent targets of “phishing” attacks, which are surreptitious approaches to stealing your identity, accessing official computer systems, running up bills in your name, or even committing crimes using your identity. Phishing schemes use e-mail or websites to trick you into disclosing personal and sensitive information.

Oh, man.

Hopefully no one will copy this “recipe” to send folks a fake notification to enroll somewhere else.

On May 28, just days before the OPM breach was reported, OPM issued a solicitation for OPM Privacy Act Incident Services. The services required include 1) notification services, 2) credit report access services, 3) credit monitoring services, 4) identity theft insurance and recovery services, and 5) project management services. According to the solicitation, these services will be offered, at the discretion of the Government, to individuals who may be at risk due to compromised Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The $20,760,741.63 contract for Call 1 was awarded to Winvale Group, LLC on June 2 but was published on fedbiz on June 5, the day after the breach was reported. Call 1 contract includes services to no more than 4 million units/employees.

Note that the State Department notice dated June 12 says that “email should not contain any attachments (#5). The OPM Services awarded on June 2 includes the following:

3.1.1.2 Contractor email Notification: The Contractor will prepare and send email notifications to affected individuals using read receipts. Emails (or attachments) will appear on Government letterhead, will contain Government-approved language, and will contain the signature of the Government official(s). Emails may contain one or more attachments. Email notification proof(s) will be provided to the Government for approval not later than 48 hours after award of a Call against the BPA. The Government will approve the email notification within 24 hours to enable the Contractor to begin preparation for distribution. The Contractor will require, receipt, track, and manage read receipts for email notifications.

Get that?

Now this. Somebody from State sent us a love letter for the hackers:

Dear Hackers: While you’re in there, please get my travel voucher for $291.46 approved, permanently cripple Carlson Wagonlit so we can stop wasting money on a useless product, and figure out how many special political hires there really are roaming our halls. Oh and please don’t use my SF-86 info against my parents, it isn’t their fault I was an idiot and gave the government every last bit of info on my entire life. I’m sure there’s more but it’s the weekend, let’s chat Monday. #LetsActLikeNothingHappened #SeriouslyThoughWTF .

And because the initial report is often understated per abrakadabra playbook hoping the bad news will go away, we’re now hearing this:

Just in: State tells all staff more systems compromised in #OPMhack incl bkgd checks of “current, former & prospective Fed govt employees”

Well, here is part of that email sent from “M” on June 15, 5:35 pm ET:

“OPM has recently discovered that additional systems were compromised. These systems include those that contain info related to background investigations of current, former, and prospective Federal government employees, as well as other individuals from whom a Federal background investigation was conducted. This separate incident…was discovered as a result of OPM’s aggressive efforts to update its cybersecurity posture… OPM will notify those individuals whose info may have been compromised as soon as practical. You will be updated when we have more info on how and when these notifications will occur.”

So that original OPM estimate of 4 million affected employees is now OBE. That original $20 million contract will potentially go up.

Brian Krebs‘ piece on credit monitoring, the default response these days when a breach happens is worth a read. Basically, he’s saying that credit monitoring services aren’t really built to prevent ID theft (read Are Credit Monitoring Services Worth It?).

What can you do besides the suggestions provided by the State Department and OPM? Brian Krebs suggests a “credit freeze” or a “security freeze” not discussed or offered by OPM. Check out the very informative Q&A here.

One response

If you don’t believe you will need to apply for a loan or credit in the near future, a credit freeze is definitely the way to go. Also, do not use security questions to validate your account access, unless the answers are unguessable and have no logical relation to the question (example: “mother’s maiden name” answer: e,cir9,d9-eeos,0).